Barbara Lee makes election stop in Alameda

Democrats will leap some high hurdles in their quest for national office this fall, Congresswoman Barbara Lee told a rapt audience at the Alameda Democratic Club on Wednesday, but she’s optimistic they’ll succeed in clearing them.

“The election is going to be very tight all over the country,” Lee, who has been active in the Democratic National Committee’s campaign efforts, told an overflow crowd at the club’s meeting at Alameda Hospital. During a half-hour talk and question-and-answer session, Lee cited voter registration laws passed in dozens of Republican-led states and the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which let corporations anonymously contribute millions of dollars to causes and candidates, as being major problems the party must confront.

Lee, who is part of the committee setting the Democratic Party’s national platform, said that scenarios the committee has run on the presidential race are “too close for comfort.”

“But he wins,” Lee said of President Barack Obama. “He wins them all.”